Orders came from Office of the President (OP) staffer Kwame McKoy for the placement of the controversial billboards on the maritime tribunal award, the company paid to do the signs confirmed to Stabroek News yesterday.
McKoy was unavailable for comment yesterday.
The billboards bore huge images of President Bharrat Jagdeo and were deemed inappropriate to the stance that Guyana had adopted in accepting the award which conferred it with control over a possible oil bearing region. President Jagdeo later ordered that the billboards be taken down.
This newspaper learnt from a reliable source that Impressions Advertising Novelties, in Forshaw Street, Queenstown created the billboards and when contacted yesterday for confirmation, an official at the company said they were given the job from OP Assistant Press and Publicity Officer McKoy.
The official, who could not remember exactly how long the boards were actually up, said “Kwame Mc Koy gave us the job and he gave instructions for us to take them down too.”
Questioned as to the reason provided by McKoy for the taking down of the billboards, the official said none was provided but they complied and took down the signs which were only supposed to be temporary.
Presidential Advisor on Governance, Gail Teixeira who filled in for Cabinet Secretary Dr. Roger Luncheon at a weekly press briefing on Thursday was posed with the question of who was responsible for putting up the billboards but she bluntly declined to answer. “You can blame it (the billboards) on enthusiasm,” Teixeira added.
According to her “the matter was a closed one” and she then proceeded to ask for the next question, even as she was probed once again on the issue.
Head of the Government Information Sector, Dr. Prem Misir had said that the President had ordered that the billboards be taken down and refuted suggestions that the head of state may have issued orders for the installation of the billboards.
Misir’s comment came in a letter to this newspaper of September 30.
At least two of the billboards were erected – one at D’Aguiar’s turn in Greater Georgetown and one leading to the East Coast Demerara. Misir’s letter had said that when the President returned from the UN Summit on Climate Change in New York he immediately ordered that the billboards be taken down.
This newspaper also attempted to ascertain from the Mayor and City Council (M&CC) whether permission was sought for the erection of the billboards as is required. Town Clerk Beulah Williams was not available for comment and Mayor Hamilton Green was said to be out of the country.
However, a source from within the council informed this newspaper that billboards should not be erected before written permission was given by the City Engineer as is stated in Chapter 28:01 of the Municipal Act.
The source said no permission was sought by those responsible for the erection of the billboards. With regard to the one at D’Aguiar’s turn, the source said that was not the first with the President’s image at the said location. There was one for the Rio Summit, held earlier this year in Guyana and another during the recent Cricket World Cup games.
The M&CC did not grant permission for those either and the source could not say why they were not taken down as would have happened under normal circumstances if something was erected on state reserves without the requisite permission.
According to Misir’s letter, the billboards were inconsistent with the President’s address to the nation on the tribunal award during which he remarked that on the fundamental issues, while Guyana’s interests and objectives were fulfilled there was going to be no triumphalism. (Heppilena Ferguson)